Privacy: Theoretical Analysis of the Value of this Concept for Greater Protection of Personal Data

108 Pages Posted: 16 May 2017

Date Written: March 20, 2017

Abstract

How can be improved the right to privacy? Is it possible make that right more effective and concrete?

The issue of privacy has been the focus of the last years, especially after the revelations of Snowden and Greenwald, which have caused a stir: this, however, has always been an elusive and "liquid topic", there are always been opposing currents, and many theories about it, between those who argue that we can improve it and those who believe it is a right that does not exist anymore.

The aim of my research is to offer an alternative view to the drafting of international agreements to ensure greater privacy protection through a partial historical analysis of some theories of experts and professors. Any theory analyzed is based on the assumption that privacy is an essential right for humans.

Starting with an introduction on how it was understood and defined the right to privacy for the first time by the American judges Warren and Brandeis in 1890, we continue to analyze some views on the subject by some authors (Gavison, Rubenfeld, Solove, Ford) ranging over a period from 1980 until today, in order to understand if, through the great technological advances that have occurred, is also changed the privacy, or it is still considered vital to ensure freedom and independence to people.

We will consider a number of international agreements between the US and Europe (Safe Harbor, Privacy Shield) and, by the views of some of the most important experts of privacy as Daniel Solove and Paul Schwartz, an attempt to understand whether there may be alternative solutions to international agreements to ensure the most appropriate privacy protection than the present one.

Keywords: privacy, cyber-security, mass surveillance, data protection, privacy shield, safe harbor, control of personal data, snowden revelations

Suggested Citation

Zeccherini, Tommaso, Privacy: Theoretical Analysis of the Value of this Concept for Greater Protection of Personal Data (March 20, 2017). Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2965925 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.2965925
No contact information is available for Tommaso Zeccherini

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